


Field Of Study

by camichats



Category: Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Breaking Up & Making Up, Established Relationship, M/M, Minor Injuries, Misunderstandings, Past Abuse, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 21:02:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20432399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camichats/pseuds/camichats
Summary: Bruce is the Hulk, and Tony thought he was keeping a different anger-related issue secret. They break up but get back together when Tony learns the truth.(Tony Stark Bingo T2-Backstory)





	Field Of Study

Tony moaned, rocking his hips up against Bruce's. God, why had they waited so long to do this? It felt like all of Tony's nerves were alight with anticipation and pleasure, and he grasped at his boyfriend's shoulders as Bruce nibbled at the sensitive skin of his neck. "Love this," he gasped. "Love you." 

Bruce made a noise like a growl, and Tony thrust against him, wishing they weren't still wearing jeans so that he could get a hand on Bruce's cock. Before he could think about it further-- or, hell, just do it, just touch him and make them both feel so fucking great-- Bruce suddenly shoved himself off of Tony and was at the edge of the bed in a flash. 

Tony was startled into stillness for several moments at the change, then he turned to see Bruce with his legs over the edge and hands clenched in the blanket so that muscles in his arm were flexed. He was slightly hunched over, breathing heavily like he was physically holding himself back from doing something. But doing what? Tony had made it clear that he wanted this, and there was nothing else happening. 

"Bruce?" he ventured tentatively, heart sinking when Bruce didn't respond verbally or so much as twitch. Now that he thought about it, he had sort of accosted Bruce as soon as he walked in the door, and he knew that his boyfriend had a few doubts about sex-- a given since they hadn't slept together despite being a couple for an entire year. He'd thought Bruce was asexual at first, but when he asked Bruce said no, so it had to be something else but fuck if he knew what. "Listen," he said, pushing himself to a sitting position gingerly, "we don't have to do anything right now, we can wait until you're ready, it's no-" 

He'd started reaching out his hand to put on Bruce's shoulder, but he cut short when Bruce jerked away from the touch as though burned and shouted, "Don't!" Without another word, he stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. 

Tony flinched and sunk back into the bed, wondering if he'd made a mistake. He'd had some bad relationships-- to put it lightly-- and he'd thought that Bruce was different. Kind, soft spoken, and Bruce usually had a smile on his face. He wore sweaters more often than not, and he and Tony had _ met _ at an anti-war rally where he said he was against all violence. It wouldn't be the first time someone lied to Tony, and unfortunately it also wouldn't be the first time a partner convinced him that they would never hurt him. 

He'd thought Bruce was different-- and half of him rebelled against the idea budding in his mind-- but maybe he _ was _like the rest of them. Nobody had started out hitting him, no they had worked their way up to it. 

...No. Tony shook his head and climbed off the bed, picking his shirt from the floor and sliding it back on. It had been an intense moment, and with how slow they'd been taking things, it made sense that Bruce was overwhelmed. 

But after that, Tony couldn't help but notice all the times Bruce had a sudden fit of rage. He always handled it well, staying still and regulating his breathing so that it didn't get worse, but Tony knew that eventually there would be a day when he did break. He wouldn't _ want _ to hold himself back, and Tony was always right there. 

If he wasn't four times burned and now shy, he would have been more understanding; lots of people were angry and they managed it just fine with no outbursts. But Tony saw clenched fists and was reminded of the way he'd taken bruise after bruise, _ always _ using the excuse that he loved them, and it's not like they meant it. He should've learned the first time, but he didn't, and now here he was, with someone so soft and kind he hadn't thought them capable of it. The thing was... Bruce had _ always _ had an anger problem, but until that day in bed together, Tony hadn't thought twice about it. Now it was all he could think of. Every cup set down too hard, every curse at a problem he didn't understand, even the bitten off shouts of pain when he stubbed his toe: all of it made Tony go still, waiting to see if this was the moment. 

He slept fitfully, but eventually he couldn't do it anymore, the stress of _ waiting _ having him on the edge of a breakdown all the time. Public breakup, he decided. It was a scummy thing to dump someone in a public place, but no one had ever risked hitting him in front of others, and he doubted Bruce would start that way. 

Bruce cleared his throat uncomfortably while they waited in line for coffee. "So uh, do I get a hint about what your big news is?" 

"Big news?" 

"Yeah. I mean, you're clearly working up to something. If it was your paper getting published, you wouldn't be able to shut up about it. And uh, you don't have a reason to work up to it unless it's bad, so... is something wrong?" 

Tony swallowed and didn't say anything. It was bad enough that he was going to be breaking up with him here, did he really need to say it while they were trapped in the middle of a line? 

Bruce dropped his voice even more, so that the only way someone could hear them was if they were deliberately eavesdropping. "If this is about the other night, I really am sorry. There's some... baggage about sex for me. I didn't mean to run out on you like that. I thought I'd be able to do it, and then I panicked. I didn't mean to lead you on or anything." 

"It's fine," Tony mumbled, looking down at his feet. Bruce was being so sweet, maybe he could just- no. No, he told himself firmly. He wasn't going to wait for this to get physical before he left, not this time. 

"It doesn't really seem like it's fine." 

Again, Tony said nothing. The room started to get hot. The space started to get smaller. "I need some air." 

"Do you want me to-" 

"No." 

"Okay. I'll get your drink, just text me if you went home or something." 

"I'm not thirsty," Tony managed to say, stumbling out of line and towards the door. 

"Okay," Bruce said again, sounding worried. 

He had no idea how long he stood there, head hanging as he tried to catch his breath. This would be okay. Bruce would be upset, sure, but he wouldn't _ hurt _ Tony, and it wouldn't make any sense for him to be so upset that he sought him out later to fuck him up. He could do this. People got dumped every day, Bruce would be able to handle this like an adult. 

When he finally made his way back inside and found Bruce, he had two cups on the table. One was in his hands, and the other was facing the other seat, clearly for Tony. Bruce glanced up when Tony walked over, smiling tentatively. "I got you a caramel latte. I know you said you didn't want anything, but I thought you might want it anyways. It is, um, decaf though. For your nerves." Bruce was a firm believer in not drinking caffeine when you have anxiety, which meant that he'd spent most of their relationship trying to convert Tony to herbal tea. 

"Thanks," Tony muttered, sliding into the seat and wrapping his hands around the cup and feeling the warmth seep into his skin. It was so kind and thoughtful, and that just made the guilt in his stomach churn. He tightened his fingers as he reminded himself why he had to do this. He felt like this every time, no matter how much they hurt him. It fucking sucked, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. "I can't do this anymore," he blurted. 

"Sorry," Bruce said, mouth twisting in an apologetic grimace. "I should've asked first, I'll get you a normal one." He started to stand, and Tony realized that he was about to go and buy him a new drink. He didn't see this coming to the point that Tony had used a common line in breakups, and Bruce thought the issue was the decaf espresso in his latte. 

"Wait! That's not what I meant." 

Bruce sunk back into his seat. "Okay?" 

"I think," Tony said slowly, making sure to keep his voice loud enough that Bruce could hear so he wouldn't have to repeat himself, "that we should break up." 

He blinked. "What? You... you want to break up?" 

Tony gave a small nod, not making eye contact. 

"Oh," was all Bruce said for a minute, and Tony glanced up to see his expression. He was stunned when Bruce looked to be holding back tears, but he kept himself firm. He'd been tricked before, he wasn't going to let that happen this time. But it was so fucking difficult when Bruce looked utterly miserable, his eyes reddening and brimming with liquid behind his glasses. "Is there a reason, or?" 

Tony stayed silent, clenching his jaw. Even now, he found it hard to lie, and he couldn't exactly say 'I think one day you're going to hit me'. 

"Right- um- I just, it's." Bruce clamped his mouth shut against his stuttering. "I'm gonna go. Bye Tony." 

And that was that. They saw each other every once in a while when they attended the same science lecture that was being held, but they didn't do the awkward wave thing. They just ignored each other. Or, rather, Tony pretended they were strangers and he was pretty sure that Bruce was doing the same because at the very least he wasn't coming up to Tony trying to make polite conversation. 

A couple months passed, and Tony still struggled to keep himself from calling Bruce up and explaining that he'd misunderstood. But it always ended with him calling Rhodey so that he didn't break. 

The first time he _ really _ saw Bruce after the breakup was when Bruce broke... Harlem. 

One minute Tony was on the phone, telling his father that whoever he was supposed to be meeting was MIA and could he please just leave already? The next minute, buildings were half-destroyed and Tony was pinned under a car that had gone flying. No cops had shown up yet, and Tony was pretty sure that if he didn't get help some he'd lose his legs because he couldn't feel a damned thing from them and that scared him more than pain would have. 

He struggled uselessly, trying to slide out from under the twisted car. All of a sudden, it was pulled clean off him and he wanted to be relieved, but that pain he'd been missing came back in a furious rush and he banged his head against the asphalt with a scream. 

"Tony," came a deep voice that he didn't recognize. 

He looked towards it, but his vision was blurry from tears and all he could make out was that they were huge and green. 

"Hurt," the person said, an absolutely massive hand petting his head clumsily. 

Tony blinked rapidly to clear his eyes, and his breathing froze. They were fucking massive. Ten feet and muscles on top of muscles like they were a contender in the Mister Universe pageant. Also his skin was green, but that was the least of Tony's worries right now because that was Bruce. He didn't have his usual glasses and his hair was a different style, but that facial structure was unmistakable. "Bruce?" he whispered. 

"Hurt," he repeated. Like this, a single fist was bigger than Tony's head. It would be so immensely easy for him to hurt Tony like this, but that was the furthest thought from Tony's mind. Instead, all he could think was _ Does this hurt you? To be like this? _ He scooped Tony up as gently as he could, but it still jostled Tony's legs and he bit his lip to keep from screaming again. He ended up blacking out after two steps. 

When he woke up again, he was in the hospital. He looked around for Bruce, but it was only Howard in the visitor's chair. That made sense given hospitals' family-only rule when it came to Tony, but he still managed to feel disappointed by it. His phone was on the table next to Howard, and Tony was pretty sure he could reach it. 

He was wrong. 

On the bright side, after helping him back into bed, Howard handed it over, muttering something about how his life would be easier if his son could be patient-- which Tony thought was rich, coming from Howard of all people. Instead of saying that aloud though, Tony clicked Bruce's contact info and called him. 

It rang. 

...And rang. It rolled to voicemail, and Tony rolled his eyes. "Hey it's Tony. I know you don't want to talk to me, but I'm not going to let this go so you can either face it or wait in horror for when I finally manage to corner you. Your choice, sweetheart." 

Howard watched him do that, raising an eyebrow. When he finished, Howard looked slightly alarmed. "Should I be worried about your relationship with him?" 

Tony ignored that. "What happened?" 

"Are you sure you need to ask that question? You don't seem to be lacking in control of your facilities even though the doctors told me you would be." 

"Disappointed?" 

Howard rolled his eyes. He was trying his best to salvage a father/son relationship, but Tony refused to be helpful about it. In his opinion, Howard was the root of most of his problems and he was going to hold it against him for as long as he wanted to. "Some sort of government run experiment gone wrong according to the news," he said dismissively, conveying that he didn't put much stock in that excuse. 

Tony didn't know whether or not that was accurate, but he was going to hope it wasn't otherwise Bruce was in more trouble than he could help with. His phone buzzed with a message. 

**Sorry. Shouldn't happen again.**

Tony glared at his phone, tapping a reply angrily.  Yeah that's not what I asked. My place or your's? 

**??? **

**Did they let you out of the hospital already???????? **

**Maybe don't go back there if you get sick they sound terrible.**

Fine, I'm not out yet, but once I heal, my place or your's? 

**I don't think that's a good idea. We broke up, and I know you don't want to see me anymore.**

Things change, and not whatever it is you're thinking. It's about our breakup (and also the giant green thing that happened but mostly about when that happened because if it predates us dating we might not need to be broken up). So YEAH I WANT TO FUCKING SEE YOU. 

* * *

"So if your heart rate gets too high, you rage out?" Tony repeated. 

Bruce gave an awkward shrug. "Basically." 

"Ah." 

He looked at Tony with a confused frown. 

"I... sort of broke up with you because you had anger issues and I was worried you'd hit me." He paused. "Now that I say it like that it sounds kinda terrible." 

Bruce shook his head. "You were looking after yourself." He sighed, running a stressed hand through his hair. "Let me guess. You're going to say that we should get back together since this was a misunderstanding." 

"Um yeah, that's what I was planning. I- well I thought you'd be happy," Tony admitted, already blushing with embarrassment at apparently being so horribly wrong. 

"Tony, if you thought I was going to hit you, things clearly weren't going as well as I thought they were. It's okay, really. I- I understand." 

"I'm not explaining this right," Tony sighed, rubbing at face. "You know about my past relationships." 

Bruce nodded. 

"You're nothing like any of them-- well, except for being gorgeous beyond belief, like seriously what is that-- but I was paranoid. You slammed a door once, and all of a sudden I thought you were going to hit me. That's not exactly good evidence that I was running with. I really care about you Bruce. I hated breaking up with you, but I did it because I thought it was the best thing for me." 

"It's still the best thing for you." 

Tony blinked at him. "Uh, how do you figure? We were happy together." 

"I can't control myself. Sure I'm trying, but back there in Harlem? I tripped. I tripped on a fucking uneven piece of the sidewalk, and I scraped my hands. Next thing I know, I've transformed into that... thing and he's destroying everything in sight." 

"Okay but you controlled yourself just fine around me for an entire year without anything happening. We're fine! Besides, me and the big guy? We're tight. He saw me hurt, and all he did was help. Either he likes me as much as you do, or he's a part of you that has impulse control. It doesn't really matter though, because I'm safe either way. And, bonus, now that I know about the heart rate thing, I'll stop jumping you." He meant to stop there, but he couldn't help but add, "Fyi, if you'd told me about this earlier, we could have avoided the breakup entirely." 

"Tony," Bruce said, sounding weary and like he was going to fight them getting back together. 

"How about this: we get back together for one week, and if you still think it's a bad idea, we split up. Deal?" 

There was a long moment where Tony thought Bruce was going to decline, but he ended up nodding. "Deal." 

Tony beamed, throwing his arms around Bruce and hugging him tightly. "Excellent. I have been severely under-hugged these past few months." 

He felt more than heard Bruce's laugh in response to that. "Can't have that, now can we?" 


End file.
